Meal Planning

Planning meals is a huge chore for me. I am not excited about eating, so making food is even less interesting.

So tonight I enlisted the help of Ducky.

Me: Help me plan this weeks dinners.

Ducky: We should start eating tofu.

Me: No, it is gross.

Ducky: It's good and when did you ever eat it?

Me: High school.

Ducky: It has changed since then.

Me: I don't think so.

Ducky: We should eat more fish. (More than none.)

Me: No, I don't like fish. I don't like the smell of fish, the taste of fish, the texture of fish. If you want fish, eat a tuna sandwich.

Ducky: It is good for you.

Me: I don't care. If I have to make a meal, I at least want to sort of like it.

Ducky: But it is really good for you.

Me: Really don't care. I already don't really want to eat food. I am not making fish. You can cook it outside on the grill this summer, and eat it out there too.

I told you I was picky, opinionated and stubborn. I don't know where the boys got it from. Needless to say, fish and tofu are not on the menu this week. And paying sweetP to eat seems to be working. He ate two long green beans, two small bites of pork chop and two small bites of rice pilaf without complaint and in 15 minutes. Then ate a cheese sandwich.

Maybe someone should pay me to eat?

The Particulars of Pickiness

I am quite the expert on pickiness. I was born picky. And it didn't help that I never loved my mom's cooking. I think it had something to do with the fact that it always had lard in it. I am still picky, but oh so much more adventurous than I used to be. I have a real problem with textures. I easily head into sensory overload. Sights, smells, sounds, textures. I have bionic senses.

I always hated the battles at the dinner table growing up. I would sit at the table for hours rather than eat. I would sneak food to the dog, the trash, once to my room. I wanted to avoid these battles with my own children.

Both of my boys are picky. One by nature, the other by example. SweetP has been picky from the day that solid foods were introduced. He has been consistently picky ever since. He never went through phases. He doesn't like what he doesn't like. When they say that it takes 20 or more exposures for a child to decide they like something. We are well past 200 on a wide variety of foods. And still have very few winners. He is a carnivore. There are no veggies that he likes. He will occasionally eat a banana or applesauce and that is it for fruits.

SweetE on the other hand, has grown up watching his brother and will be excited about something until it is pronounced yucky by sweetP. And then he wants nothing to do with it. He will really like a food one day and a day or two later he hates it. He is a fickle picky eater. And that is more aggravating. Our biggest challenge with him is getting him to try it. Then he usually likes it for the duration of dinner. He will eat just about any kind of fruit, so I am lucky there.

Dinner is not a fun affair at our house. We hope as the boys head into their teenage years, also known as the eat everything in sight years, they will lose a lot of the pickiness.

I have resorted to bribing sweetP to eat. We have tied his allowance to dinner. I don't believe in the clean plate club. I don't expect him to finish everything I put on his plate. Just two bites of everything. In a half hour or less. Preferably without complaining, but baby steps. Every night when we sit down to dinner I set the timer for 30 minutes. And if he eats his two bites of each item we put a sticker on the chart. So far so good, but we are only 4 days into the plan.

People have suggested that I just let him go hungry. Great plan, unless your child throws up the next morning because he didn't eat. Makes it more of a punishment for mom than child. And since I would rather go hungry than eat stuff I don't like, I know it wouldn't work anyway. He is my clone after all.

Ducky says it isn't fair. He eats anything and blames my mother for cursing us with children just like me. My aunt says not to worry, all of her kids started out picky and now are really adventurous eaters. In the meantime, dinner is still a challenge.

It's Sickness Season

My class has been relatively healthy all year. Until now. The last couple of days the students have been dropping like flies. We had one go home just as school was starting.

It is so bad that they came in and disinfected all the desks last night.

So I am going to bed to give my immune system a fighting chance.

My SweetP's Frustration

Tonight I sat down with sweetP to do his homework with him. And it was a rather bitter battle.

He has a hard time with reading. I feel a little guilty because I didn't send him to preschool. His little brother had just been born. He wasn't potty trained. He wasn't ready. And then the next year, we didn't know what our schedules would be like and it was just easier to keep him home. I had grand plans to teach him myself. But life got busy and it never happened.

I taught him lots of other things. He has great life experiences that tie in to lots of things. He can do math really well. What can I say, I'm a math person. But he is having a hard time with reading.

He has improved leaps and bounds this year and I am really proud of him. But he is frustrated at how much he doesn't know when we are reading together. I push him to try to sound out words.

Usually he doesn't mind doing the homework, but tonight as soon as we got started he was mad. And a bit obstinate. (I don't know where he got that from.) And I feel bad. I love to read. He loves books. He wants to read them, but he just isn't there yet. I wish that he didn't have to work so hard and instead could just absorb it the way he absorbs other things.

And I know one day it will suddenly click and it will make sense. And he will turn into the super reader that I know he will be. But in the meantime it is hard to watch him work so hard and get frustrated.

Fun Monday - The Bucket List

Our host for Fun Monday this week is tiggerlane.

Our assignment: Have you heard of The Bucket List? Well, that's what I want from you! Make a list of things you want to do before you die. It must be at least five items - and you can make it as long as you desire. Photos are optional. And let's hear about some of the wackiest, most bizarre to-do's on your Bucket List!

Like I have time to come up with a dream list. I am still working on the need list. But here goes.

The Fun List
1. Leave the country for a while. It must be farther than 20 miles outside the country. Preferably outside the continent. A passport will be required. The visit will last at least a month so I can really get the feel for someplace else. Preferably English speaking as I am completely incapable of learning languages.

2. Build or completely remodel a house (that I am not living in). I had a grand plan before having children of getting my general contractors license and working on houses in the summer when I wasn't teaching. I planned to flip houses before I had ever heard of the term. It is kind of hard to do with little ones. But I think it would be a hoot if the boys took construction technology classes with me when they were older. I would love to pass on my handyman abilities to them.

3. At least get a timeshare or condo on the beach with an awesome ocean view. I love to just sit and watch the ocean. It calms me. And I would love to go at least once every month or two.

4. Do something big. Don't know what yet. Write a book. Hike a long trail. Climb a small mountain. Something big. I'll figure it out one of these days.

The Sanity List
1. Raise my two boys to be happy, responsible and productive members of society. With great marriages and cute grandbabies. And I hope they want to live near us.

2. Live debt free. I've got to get rid of those student loans. Preferably without dying to do it.

3. Live in a community where you don't need a car. I love the European model where everything you need is within walking distance. It just seems so much simpler. And easier. And more healthy.

Okay, so that is all that I can think of. But you should see my to do list. It can go on for days. Be sure to visit all those other Fun Mondayers and get inspired.

What Was I Thinking???

Today I spent three hours of a perfectly good Saturday at work. This after spending an hour and half grading papers yesterday. And I still have about three more hours of grading to do this weekend. This after being told that I am the cause of all of one of my students problems.

And it makes me wonder why I thought teaching would be a good idea. You don't leave them or their work behind at the end of the day. You want them to do their best, BE their best. You want them to be successful and happy. You want to help them achieve success and happiness. You worry and plan and think and ponder until June. And before June even comes around you are already thinking about how next year can be even better. How you can tweak this and change that to be an even better teacher. And sometimes you smack right into a brick wall and wonder what you were thinking.

There are other jobs that are easier. Pay better. That you can leave at the end of the day. And on days like this, they look really appealing.

But, when you see that student that struggles turn the corner and start to understand. You know why you work many more hours than you are paid for. Why you sacrifice your hobbies to grade papers. Why I do what I do. Why I put up with standardized testing that sucks the creativity out of everything.

But today, all I see is the wall. And I am frustrated. I am frustrated at the red tape, the people in charge that haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years, the parents that are out of touch with reality and the fact that I can never seem to get caught up.

Today, I don't know how I will do this for years and years to come. But one day in the near future, a light bulb will come on and I will have helped flip the switch and then I will see why I do this. And it will all be better again.

Blog Cramp

I am at a complete loss for what to blog about tonight. Lots of interesting things happened this week. I just don't remember what they were.

My headache is finally gone after 48 hours. Note to self. No more caffeine. I did a little test and had caffeine twice in one week. And paid for 48 hours.

The boys are both healthy. I have not caught up on the mountain of laundry that was created from the last illness.

I am stewing over a conversation that I need to have. And don't think it will go over well.

And sweetP was asking what the names of the girl parts were. I am so not ready to have those conversations yet. Can't he just stay little and innocent a little while longer.